SCIENCE

The thin film industry has thrived in the last couple of decades, as the applications for thin film coatings are countless: electronics, optics, energy, decoration, protection, and scientific research, among many other areas.

With over 20 years of experience in the thin film deposition and subcontract coating markets, Polyteknik has been involved in several Big Science Projects globally; from recoating huge 8-meter mirrors on the VLT’s at the European Southern Observatory, developing in-situ mirror cleaning for the ITER fusion reactor, to providing conductive metal coatings with high-uniformity on beam-line kicker chambers. With an experienced team of physicists, engineers and technicians, and a particular focus on quality, reliability and exceptional customer service, Polyteknik is the ideal partner in the field of Big Science.

COATING TYPES

Kicker chambers

With a highly experienced and reliable team, Polyteknik AS provides a highly dedicated deposition system that offers high-quality and uniformed coatings for accelerator applications, including:

Internal deposition
Bespoken thin film solutions
High-uniformity, non-magnetic coatings
Guaranteed surface resistivity
Negation of charged internal surfaces and profiles
Elimination of irregular beam oscillations
Custom coatings on request
Full material characterization

One apparent area of interest is the coating of ceramic chambers and stainless-steel tubes used globally throughout Synchrotron & Linear Accelerators. Encompassed by major electro-magnets, the kicker chambers become charged during operation processes, resulting in a difference in surface resistivity which may cause irregular oscillations of the beam.

Thermal absorber coating

When a component is located inside a vacuum environment and without a good conduction connection, the only way for the component to lose thermal energy is through thermal radiation. Dissipation of thermal radiation inside vacuum environments can be difficult, especially if the vacuum chamber is made of metal. The metal sides of the chamber will just reflect the majority of the thermal radiation back towards the source, and this will increase the temperature of the component.

A way to lower the temperature of components in vacuum environments can be to increase the thermal radiation absorption of the metallic chamber. The metal chamber can then be cooled from the outside to lower the thermal radiation of the chamber.

We at Polyteknik AS have developed a thin film coating that increases the absorption to above 70 %, and the coating is vacuum stable up to temperatures above 500˚C

Low SEY coating

The deposition of a low Secondary Electron Yield (SEY) coating to ceramic chambers is a way of reducing the formation of electron clouds in accelerator applications. Alumina usually has a SEY value of approx. 9 but with the Polyteknik Low SEY coating it drops below 1.4. The coating further limits the possibility of flashovers during high voltage operations, while still not having a charge build-up on the surface. This coating will enabled higher beam intensities of the accelerator.

The coating is deposited using magnetron sputtering, and has been applied to ceramic chamber up to 3 meters in length, and this was done with a very good adhesion and uniformity across the entire length.